DETAILS OF GARDEN WORK 



How TO REMOVE THE WINTER PROTECTION 



This is done in February or March. March is the month 

 when a garden form of "spring house-cleaning" is in order. 

 Roses are still in their straw jackets, and the plants in garden- 

 beds and borders are asleep, their feet snugly covered by winter 

 blankets of stable litter or leaves. As soon as the weather 

 permits this covering should be removed. If the "blanket" 

 of mulch is kept on too long the plants, becoming overheated, 

 start to grow, and when the covering is removed, finding chilly 

 April weather when they had expected that of late May, they 

 take cold as easily as incubator chicks or children kept in over- 

 heated rooms. To prevent this taking cold loosen the straw 

 jackets and let the air circulate freely about the stems of your 

 roses before removing the covering altogether. The scientific 

 idea of winter protection is that of organized charity: to give 

 help only when absolutely necessary and to withdraw it as 

 soon as possible. 



Garden books seem rather fond of advising the anxious in- 

 quirer to "dig in" or "fork in" manure that during the win- 

 ter has been lying on the garden-beds which is all very well 

 and an excellent practice in beds where there are only shrubs 

 or late-blooming plants, but where early-flowering plants are 

 set bulbs, dicentra, and the like this is practically impos- 

 sible. No plant likes to be disturbed when near its time of 

 blooming, and how to dig manure into such a bed without 

 disturbing the roots of the plants is a problem that would 

 require the wisdom of the Egyptians, or rather that of Moses, 

 who led the Israelites across on dry land and drowned the 

 Egyptians on the same spot. Therefore, when your garden- 

 beds are filled with early-flowering things lift the mulch off 

 carefully with a broad-tined earth-fork. Do not have it all 



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